Over 8 million women stayed at home during the Second World War and their story has never been told. Using brand new research from the Mass-Observation Archive, Jennifer Purcell brings to life - in all its tragedy, pathos, joy and fear - the lives of six ordinary women made extraordinary by the demands of war. In their diaries and notes they record the inner thoughts and everyday activities as they tried to survive come what may. Nella Last, the archetypal housewife struggles between the demands of her husband and her desire to help the war effort. Cambridge-educated, middle-class Natalie Tanner sneaks out to the cinema whenever possible and discusses politics in town, leading a leisured life while others try to scrape by. Saddled with a draughty and unwieldy centuries-old home directly in the path of German bombs, Helen Mitchell constantly tries to escape the war and her domestic life. Opinionated and patriotic Edie Rutherford uses the war to escape the home and go to work. Alice Bridges endures the horrors of the Blitz on her home town of Birmingham and finds a new and exciting social life as she reports the war for Mass-Observation. Housebound for most of the war with debilitating arthritis, working-class Irene Grant struggles to keep her family fed and dreams of a better Britain. Intensely moving and personal, each woman reveals their most secret fears and hopes, as well as the everyday problems of wanting to contribute to the war effort, keeping a house together under difficult circumstances, the travails of rationing, work and volunteering, whilst maintaining their duties as wife and mother. Jennifer Purcell redraws a new, emotional and unexpected history of the Second World War as it was experienced by those left behind, the domestic soldiers.
Domestic Soldiers
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Book of the Week. --Daily Mail
About the Author
Jennifer Purcell has a PhD in Modern British history from Sussex University where she did new research in the lives of the six women in the book in the Mass Observation Archive. She currently teaches in Vermont, New England.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Housemouse
Format:Paperback
Not usually the type of book I normally read, I came across this by accident & once started, just could not put it down. It not just conveys what happened to those left minding the Home front during the war, but is so descriptive you almost feel that you are in the Anderson shelter there with them, & with its decriptions of the trials & tribulations of rationing it makes you realise how grateful you should be for your local Tesco's & how much we all take for granted these days.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Jennifer has writen a wonderful book about the women in the years of 1939 and 1945. I was a young child during those years and didn't know just how much women suffered in trying to keep their family together and happy. Women were so "put down" by men but they showed they had the guts and courage to overcome these problems and they created the the world that see todays women working and having familes as they chose. They are now people that demand respect and all of todays women should say a big THANK YOU to these housewives during the wars years.
Well done Jennifer.
Well done Jennifer.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Sm Drew
Format:Paperback
This book mixes the experiences of six women who wrote diaries for Mass-Observation with an account of the military and political events of the Second World War. Instead of the massive screeds of diary extracts found in other Mass-Obs anthologies, the women's experiences are summarised and brought to life in descriptions that read like fiction in places.
There are quotes from the six women as well as the heavyweights of the time and then long descriptions of events. This makes for a somewhat readable and somewhat clunky read, the accounts of the women's lives drew me in but I found it then hard to concentrate on the harder stuff - like the Blitz and events in India.
It was hard to distinguish the six women from each other, barring Nella Last who I was already somewhat familiar with from her published diaries. The author also uses surnames and first names interchangably e.g. a woman is referred to as Helen and then Mitchell. Add in husbands and children, aquaintances, friends and events and I found it rather confusing and was unable to see any of the women as individuals (and had to keep referring back to see who was married to who and who had what political leanings etc).
I haven't read many books on the Second World War so I did finish this book with a greater awareness of how life was experienced by those who were not on the frontline- on the Kitchen Front as it was put. However I felt somewhat cheated of the promise of hearing the unique voices of the six women who all seemed to meld into one after the first few chapters.
There are quotes from the six women as well as the heavyweights of the time and then long descriptions of events. This makes for a somewhat readable and somewhat clunky read, the accounts of the women's lives drew me in but I found it then hard to concentrate on the harder stuff - like the Blitz and events in India.
It was hard to distinguish the six women from each other, barring Nella Last who I was already somewhat familiar with from her published diaries. The author also uses surnames and first names interchangably e.g. a woman is referred to as Helen and then Mitchell. Add in husbands and children, aquaintances, friends and events and I found it rather confusing and was unable to see any of the women as individuals (and had to keep referring back to see who was married to who and who had what political leanings etc).
I haven't read many books on the Second World War so I did finish this book with a greater awareness of how life was experienced by those who were not on the frontline- on the Kitchen Front as it was put. However I felt somewhat cheated of the promise of hearing the unique voices of the six women who all seemed to meld into one after the first few chapters.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Reads like an A level essay
Very disappointed with this book. I really enjoy WW2 / Home Front diary recollection works but this was very amateur by the standards of many on the market. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Madame Cholet
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book; interesting real lives in wartime
I really enjoyed this book. Concentrating on a few women who wrote diaries during the war for Mass Observation, it gives a candid view of the war without the bias. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Simon Binning
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Reading and Full of Information
This book really intrigued me. I was born during the years that these Domestic Soldiers were on their homefront. Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2010 by Diane Vaughan
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing re-hash of a previously read book
I was very disappointed with this book. I had previously read Nella Lasts War and thoroughly enjoyed it. Read more
Published on 31 Oct 2010 by J. Ashley
2.0 out of 5 stars
difficult to read
I had great expectations of this book but would have liked the diarists to have been separated as
it became quite confusing as to who was experiencing what during the war... Read more
it became quite confusing as to who was experiencing what during the war... Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2010 by Mrs. Patricia Spiller
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